Dear fellow alums,
Our hearts go out to those alums affected by the wildfires raging across Northern California. Whether you needed to evacuate, or you prepared to, or you felt the effects of the smoke all over the Bay Area, we’re thinking of you and hoping that you and your families are staying safe during this scary and uncertain time.
2020 Common Read, The 1619 Project
We encourage you to join us in reading the College’s 2020 selection for the Common Read, The 1619 Project. Nikole Hannah-Jones, staff writer at The New York Times Magazine and lead on The 1619 Project, will be this year’s Common Read Keynote, on September 7th at 3:00 pm Pacific Time. All members of the Mount Holyoke community are invited to join the address.
Alum Quarterly Online
The Alum Association has published the Summer 2020 Quarterly issue online. To receive the magazine electronically, check out Class Notes, and stay in touch with fellow alums, we encourage you to update your contact info in the Alum Directory on the AA website. Keeping your email address current will ensure you receive the AQ as well as other correspondence from both the College and our NorCal Club.
Lifetime Membership
We’d like to extend a heartfelt thanks to Boots Whitmer ‘70 for being our very first Lifetime Club Member! A former president of the NorCal Club, Boots is an avid traveler and hiker who enjoys both urban and wilderness hikes. While she does not currently actively practice law, she occasionally judges moot court competitions at local law schools, acts as an advisor to young attorneys, and keeps her license active. Thank you, Boots, for your generous donation, and for your continued support of the Club! If any other alums would like to become a Lifetime Member, we’d love to have you.
Continuing Anti-Racist Work
At the end of August, President Stephens shared the College’s action plan to continue the work of becoming an anti-racist institution. The Board of Trustees has also developed its own complementary action plan in support of this goal.
The NorCal Club is continuing to explore how to take anti-racist action in our community, on our Board, and within the Club. We will share the results of our Call to Anti-racist Action survey and our commitments moving forward in our October newsletter. We as alums must hold the College, the Club, and ourselves accountable to these outlined actions.
We’re still welcoming any recommendations of alums who have founded, work for, or volunteer at local Northern California organizations doing anti-racist work or fundraising and will include them in upcoming newsletters and social media features. Please send any recommendations to the Board at mountholyoke@gmail.com.
Our very best wishes,
The Board